mgo.licio.us

"The face of the operation is Briatore (referred to exclusively in the film by his colleagues and angry, chanting detractors as "Flavio"), an anthropomorphic radish who spends most of his time at QPR plotting to fire all of the managers."

At press time, Harbaugh had sent Michigan’s athletic department an envelope containing a heavily annotated seating chart, a list of the 63,000 seat views he had found unsatisfactory, and a glowing 70-page report on section 25, row 12, seat 9, which he claimed is “exactly what the great sport of football is all about.”

If Miles comes, and recruits and wins like I believe he can, I don't care about a "spotless" candidate.

I'm curious why you seem to think that RichRod's "major" violations are equivalent to Miles' major violations. Also, if you don't care if the next coach likes to screw over 18 year olds and then lie about it*, then I'm very very glad you have absolutely no say in The Process.

*seriously, before you submit another comment go do some research on "oversigning." It is a deeply immoral practice.

You know, Boutros, you can scroll up and look at a guy who freely admits that he was only interested in firing RichRod because he thought Harbaugh would be the replacement. I'm not imagining this.

The point of my bitching is not because I want to be lauded as some sort of genius who was "right," and I'm sad to hear you say that about me. The point of my bitching is that I don't want this to happen to the next guy. The next guy should get 5 years, no matter what, and should not be axed after 3 because his rebuilding job was taking too long.

Firing a guy after 3 years is not a good idea, and is a bad precedent. And most relevant to the next guy's tenure, since part of the justification for doing this bad thing was illusory (as first choice replacements tend to be), maybe we should all agree to never do this again. That's my point.

Ironically, even most of the RR supporters also assumed JH was available and ready to sign. But in their case, it didn't matter; in mine, it did.

Speaking for myself, this was absolutely NOT the case and one of the reasons why I wanted to keep RichRod was because I was highly skeptical of Harbaugh's availability and did not want to go through another national coaching search given the performance of the last one.

I think you may have laid out the groups pretty well, and I appreciate your honesty in confessing to belonging to that third group. Having said that, you're absolutely one of the guys I'm sarcastically applauding. I was never comfortable with the implied link between firing RichRod and hiring Harbaugh, and I didn't understand how anyone could think that would go exactly as planned. Programs rarely get their first choice, and if there wasn't a real second choice then "Harbaugh or Bust" was not a good plan.

[Had] I known that this was media speculation and fan echo chamber bull****, and the choice was between RR and "January national coaching search," I wouldn't have advocated for a coaching change at all.

Fine, if you don't think Harbaugh's asskicking this year provided even the tiniest push of you from "I still believe" to "FIRE RICHROD," well I stand corrected. You're not in that group.

But again, if you think Harbaugh's perceived availability had nothing to do with spurring people on to fire RichRod after only 3 years, I think you're wrong. For just one example, I'd refer you to the "Attention to Detail" post over at Genuinely Sarcastic. That post was all about how bad RichRod is in comparison to Harbaugh. And while I'm too lazy to do the research, I'm assuming based on my vague recollection that there were tons of threads here that were all about replacing RichRod with Harbaugh, and how Harbaugh really really would come, etc. I don't recall a lot of threads discussing a pool of candidates to replace RichRod. It was always get Harbaugh or keep RichRod, in the minds of many people here (including Brain).

At the end of the day, I will always sarcastically applaud a program for firing a guy after only 3 years because, barring some ethical problem, that's not enough time. That's not a good formula for long term success. I'm pretty sure in 2007 most M fans would agree that the head coach deserves more than 3 years, especially if the program is making progress on his watch. I'd like to think most M fans still believe that today, though now I'm not so sure.

If we agree the head coach deserves more than 3 years, and progress was being made...then how did we get here? You may continue to protest my theory that the perceived availability played a part in how we got here, but I disagree. And watching MGo melt down while Harbaugh slips away makes me think I'm closer to the mark than people would rather admit.

I disagree with you if you want to imply Harbaugh's availability had nothing to do with firing RichRod. Visualizing getting Harbaugh made people feel a little bit easier/more supportive about firing RichRod after only 3 years. I include you specifically in that group.

Firing a guy after only 3 years who has steadily progressed the team into a winning season just doesn't happen in normal circumstances. Again- coaches normally get more than 3 years.

The perceived availability of Harbaugh was what made these circumstances abnormal, and was thus a catalyst for firing the coach so quickly.

I am so happy that the fans who thought firing RichRod automatically meant hiring Harbaugh have been proven right. Clearly, firing RichRod was an excellent plan, because of course he'll be replaced by Harbaugh.

WHAT COULD GO WRONG? NOTHING, THEREFORE FIRE RICHROD.

Thanks, fellow M fans, for contributing to this turmoil and setting a new precedent for firing a guy after only 3 years on the job. Heckuva job, haters.

To me, it looks like all plans are still plausible. Even if Harbaugh says no (preferably soon), then Plan B is still in effect. The only problem that might occur is if Brandon officially fires RichRod before locking in Harbaugh (unlikely IME), in which case if Harbaugh says no then Plan C is put in place.

I'm not sure I see any failed 2 inch putt here. Not one month ago we all accepted that it was either RichRod or Harbaugh (do I need to go find Brain's post on that?). That still looks to be the case.

I haven't seen enough that he gets pumped over it also. I live in Ohio, which sucks.

Aaaaaaand that's why you wrote this stupid post. I'm sorry that your coworkers and neighbors make fun of you for being a Michigan fan, but honestly dude just suck it up. Rich Rodriguez isn't responsible for your personal emotions.

Hypothetical: the band marches out onto State Street in January, the week after the bowl game, playing music that no one can hear because they're too damn quiet. And gets mowed down by a snowplow being driven by Justin Boren. They're all in traction for at least a year.

Now, love me some band, it's stirring and fun and part of college football, but you can't use that as a rationale to have crappy high school stand-ins do music during TV timeouts. You gotta pipe in the music to keep the players pumped. It's a big picture decision, not a band decision. No band is more important than The Team, right?

I'm reluctant to trash DeBord because of the injuries in 2007, but the 2006 defense gave the offense plenty of opportunities and plenty of margin of error. I was never very impressed with the 2006 offense.

Brain's point is that people expressing "concern" about the offense using the somewhat obscure stats from the fp'd diary are operating in bad faith and are really just interested in justifying their belief that RichRod should be fired. You respond by...expressing "concern" about the offense and advocating for firing RichRod.

Defense. Simply, cannot possibly get worse. Cannot. This was the nader. We will never in our lifetimes see a worse UM D than we saw this year, may it R.I.P.

I'm pretty sure a lot of us thought and said this last year. Please don't jinx 2011 and 2012 by saying things like "it can't get any worse." No. It can always get worse, and I don't want to be proved right on this point.

Everyone interested in exploring the idea that the offense maybe isn't really as awesome as FBO's stat indicates isn't necessarily out to fire RR.

Technically you're correct (I personally am an example), but I think in general people who are saying "look look this offense is bad because of blah blah blah" are arguing in bad faith. I don't think Brain has a problem with people suggesting the offense is weak in some areas, but I think he has a very big problem with people who suggest "the offense is bad because they're only 3rd in In-Conference Points Per Drive."

Identifying a flaw in the offense isn't a problem. Taking that flaw as "evidence" to critique RichRod is.

I remember this type of schism in the fanbase back in 2003, but it was mostly based on geography. I went back to Michigan for a buddy's wedding and all the talk was about maybe Lloyd Carr should be fired. I was like WTF?

If you live outside the midwest, you generally don't have the constant discussion about the coach and is he doing a good job and yada fucking yada. It makes you much more sanguine about it all. I'm speculating, of course.

BUT HE DID X AND THEN I WAS SAD. LET ME SAY IT AGAIN, HE DID X AND I WAS SAD. HE DID X. HOW IS THAT GOING TO MAKE ME HAPPY? DOING X WILL NOT MAKE ME HAPPY. DO Y. I CAN'T UNDERSTAND PEOPLE BEING HAPPY WITH X. HE MAKES ME SAD.

I didn't perceive your diary to be a criticism of the offense or of RichRod, so I liked the work you did on it. Brain could be referring to people who used your work as a launching pad for a FIRE RICHROD screed, so perhaps this is a misunderstanding.

I find it fascinating that some people think deleting a tweet is the same as owning up to and apologizing for a mistake (or two mistakes, really). Because if we're all interested in sending the right message to recruits, IME it's a much better/stronger message to say "we're humble and secure enough to admit when we fuck up, and we're sorry."

Nothing says "I'd rather duck the issue" more than deleting a tweet and pretending it didn't happen and hoping no one notices and then having your quasi-boss blow up at people who do notice and take exception to it. But, that's just epinion.

Seriously, if you want to suggest that Dave Brandon will fire a coach after only three years and after his first bowl game (all while returning almost everybody for year 4), then go ahead. Personally, that doesn't strike me as a reasonable projection of the future. To me that seems more like wishful thinking.

But whatever, if you want to continue to wish for someone else and refuse to get the eff on board with the current coach of the team you love, then I can't stop you. Continue pining away for that NFL Farm Team that is JUST AROUND THE CORNER, if you must.

Fine, you have a problem with UniScorn and the discourse there, and for some bizarre reason people complain to you about it. I'm sorry that you receive complaints and I disagree with your assessment of our discourse there, but whatever.

I still fail to see how this makes somebody "unqualified" to criticize Tom's indefensible behavior. Recall that's the origin of the argument here. Jamie Mac called him out for it, and you responded by flaming UniScorn and the WLA. I fail to see the logic.

You want to claim it's "hypocritical" of Jamie Mac (or me or chitown) to criticize Tom for being a dick to the kids? Even you concede that we're supportive of the kids (even on the dreadful, awful, no good horrible UniScorn), so aren't we just being consistent? How is it hypocritical to call someone out for being a dick to the kids when we're always supportive of the kids?

We're assholes to Tom (and Magnus and God knows how many other people), fine. I don't think that makes it ok for Tom to be an asshole to Gallon and Gibbons, and I don't know how that prevents Jamie Mac or anyone else from pointing that out. Wrong is wrong.

1. Let's establish the fact that you have a dog in this fight. Tom generates content for your site, of the news-ish variety, and thus you have a stake in defending his reputation. You are not a neutral arbiter on what is and what is not acceptable behavior by Tom.

2. What is or is not said in a memory-free zone (i.e. UniScorn) has to be taken with a grain of salt. I'm pretty sure 90% of the things we say on the Scorn we would never say anywhere else because on the Scorn it's not permanent. It frees up (or uglies, if you will) our discourse.

3. You don't see me talking shit about players on my twitter account, partially because I know that stuff is (at least partially) permanent and I shouldn't be putting things on my permanent record when I'm emotional. I'm pretty sure you don't do it either, for a similar reason. Yet...you cannot say the same for Tom. If you want to pretend that's a meaningless distinction between the behavior of me, you, most people and Tom, that's your right. But, IME the fact that Tom is so loose with his words on something that has a bit of a permanent record is at the very least an indication of poor judgment.

4. Say what you will about the WLA, but we're pretty consistent on being supportive of the kids, on the Scorn, on Twitter, on MGo, pretty much everywhere. Occasionally one or more of us will stray but we police ourselves pretty well on supporting the kids.

...

Tom showed poor judgment in his tweeting, and in addition was ugly towards the kids. Twice. As a contributor to your site, that should concern you more than whatever is said on the Scorn.

When tackling, coverage, zone spacing, and making reads are consistent problems, then I don't think scheme is going to help any of that. I guess I would work on those fundamentals before I worried too much about scheme.

I understand the coaches worry about too many tackling drills resulting in injury. But A) we're getting pretty injured anyway, and B) fuck it we're going into the 9th game, fundamentals have to be a priority. Focus on teaching the basics, because they're sorely lacking in that department and nothing else will improve until that improves.

Other than that, I don't know that there's anything a DC can really do at this point.